A Border Police officer who shot and killed an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City in May after mistaking him for a terrorist will be tried for reckless homicide, the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID) announces in a statement.
Iyad al-Hallak, a 32-year-old man with special needs, was walking from his home in Wadi Joz in late May when two police officers claimed they spotted a “suspicious object” in his hand. The officers chased him through the streets before cornering him in a garbage room and shooting him.
A pre-trial hearing will be held before the charges are filed, PIID says.
The officer’s commander, who participated in the chase and was present at the shooting, will not be charged.
“After examining all the circumstances of the incident, it was decided to close his case, since no criminal offense was apparent in his conduct,” a spokesperson for PIID says.
— Aaron Boxerman
The parents of Iyad Halak, an autistic Palestinian man who was fatally shot by Israeli police, Khiri, right, and mother Rana, talk during an interview in Jerusalem, June 3, 2020. (Mahmoud Illean/AP)
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